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Saturday, 4 August 2012

M is for Memorial

We are now halfway through Alona's Family History Through the Alphabet and M is for Memorial

Now the general consensus of a definition of a memorial is something "in the memory of an event or more usually today, in people's minds, a person".

So of course I will start with the Caskey Memorial carved by my 2x great-grandfather, William Busby.

Of course a headstone may also be a memorial. If someone is mentioned on a headstone it does not necessarily mean that their mortal remains are buried within reach of the headstone.

Another form of memorial is the funeral or bereavement card as shown here for Alice Annie Rollason.

These cards can be very ornate.

The photo below is also a memorial. The two family members who had died prior to the photo being taken were added, fairly obviously.

I have seen more modern additions which have been photoshopped and can be difficult to detect the additions or in one case I saw of a divorce in that family, a deletion!

Memorials can also be used to remember an event such as the one at the Migration Museum in Adelaide remembering all the immigrants.

Or this medallion celebrating my having given 100 blood donations.

It may be a book platesaying your ancestor had received it for perfect attendance at schoolor church, the key given for a 21st birthday, the first shoes worn by your baby, the inscription on the flyleaf of the Bible given for a First Communion.

We should look for memorials of all types among our possessions as these can give clues which will tell us more about our ancestors and bring them to life and may even break down a brick wall in our research.